Gary R. Spratling

Much-beloved and respected Tiburon civil leader and friend Gary R. Spratling passed on March 26, 2025. Gary was a giant in our local community and globally in the legal community, based on his leadership at both the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division and his nearly two decades in private practice at Gibson Dunn in San Francisco.

Gary was born at University of California San Francisco Medical Center, raised on 16th Avenue near Pacheco, and attended Jefferson Elementary and Aptos Junior High before arriving at Lincoln High School. At Lincoln, he loved being a member of Mr. Lathrop’s forensics team, engaging in interschool debates and “original oratory” competitions around the state.

Gary earned BS and MBA degrees at UC Berkeley. During his second month of law school at the University of San Francisco (USF) in 1966 when — in the nation’s largest draft call since WWII — Gary was directed to report for induction into the Army in less than three weeks. Following his two-year active-duty tour (the first teaching at the Adjutant General School at Fort Harrison, the second in operations in southeast Asia), he returned to the USF to restart law school.

Upon graduation, Gary joined the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Gary was Chief of the San Francisco Office of the Antitrust Division — widely considered “the crown jewel of the Antitrust Division.” In 1993, Gary was made the top career official at the Antitrust Division and the first career Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Enforcement (DAAG). Gary faithfully served under numerous attorneys general, with Janet Reno his favorite. Gary and the attorney general shared kind hearts, fierce minds, and brave spirits.

In 1993, Gary persuaded Attorney General Reno to allow the Antitrust Division to replace its voluntary disclosure program, which had not led to the detection of a single significant cartel since its inception in 1978, and adopt a novel approach: Create a prisoner’s dilemma for cartel members by promising full immunity for the company and all of its employees to the first company to self-report. The Leniency Program that Gary trailblazed was unlike every other DOJ voluntary disclosure program when it was adopted, and that also remains true today.

Following Gary’s lead, competition authorities in scores of countries on every continent except Antarctica have adopted leniency programs modeled after the Antitrust Division’s. The leniency revolution became the great campaign against price-fixing cartels, all to the benefit of competition and consumers around the globe.

The proof of his success is in the outcomes achieved. When Gary assumed his leadership position in Washington, the highest criminal antitrust fine ever imposed was $10 million; the total fines collected by DOJ in a single year was $42 million. In Gary’s last year as DAAG, DOJ fines topped $1 billion with the takedown of the international vitamin cartel and the first ever prison sentences were secured for foreign nationals residing abroad who violated U.S. antitrust laws. The $500 million fine imposed on Hoffmann La Roche was a record fine for the DOJ for any crime.

When Attorney General Reno learned that Gary had received every award that a U.S. President or Attorney General can bestow on a DOJ prosecutor (including two Presidential Awards), she presented Gary with a new award — the “Attorney General Award for Extraordinary Contributions to the Protection of Our Free Market Economy.”

In 2000, Gary returned to California and joined Gibson Dunn, where he served as co-chair of the Global Antitrust and Competition Practice for 17 years. Gary’s intimate knowledge of enforcement policies and practices around the globe, coupled with his relationships and instant credibility, made Gary the go-to option for companies facing international cartel investigations. He crafted a nuanced, carefully constructed global strategy for resolving exposure and then traveled the globe meeting with each relevant authority to implement the strategy.

He did so to breathtaking effect on clients, as they repeatedly saw Gary welcomed by authorities near and far as an old friend returned home. Gary was known throughout the global bar for his “around the world” trips, where he boarded an airplane headed east, and met face to face with competition authorities in a dozen jurisdictions or more before finally crossing the Pacific and returning home to his beloved Tiburon. His representation of clients was so informed and geographically comprehensive, typically with desirable outcomes, that the lawyer-rating organization Chambers Global variously described Gary as “the best of the best,” “an amazing lawyer with international repute,” and “the Godfather of the antitrust market.” During his tenure, Gary handled 40 separate international-competition matters in 20 countries on five continents. In a single two-year span, he represented clients in investigations by 34 separate enforcement authorities in 18 jurisdictions.

In 2017, Gary received two eminent Lifetime Achievement Awards: one from Global Competition Review and the other from the American Bar Association. He was also named the California State Bar Antitrust Section’s Lawyer of the Year in 1997.

Gary long called Tiburon home, where he lived with his wife, Cathy, and their two Golden Retrievers. He served on the Tiburon Planning Commission, the Tiburon Town Council, and as mayor of Tiburon. He also was a founding trustee and the first chairman of the Marin Community Foundation for five years. Long dedicated to serving his community, Gary also served as chair and/or board member of several nonprofit organizations (Bread & Roses, Guide Dogs for the Blind, etc.).

Lastly, Gary’s DNA predetermined that he would be a lifelong car nut, starting in his preteens. During his retirement, Gary combined that passion with his community focus by serving as president and chair of Shifting Gears USA, a car-enthusiast organization that develops, enhances, and supports vocational training for young people of Marin County by advancing technical education programs that provide a pathway to successful careers in today’s workplace. He also spent nine months in 2019 on a nationwide show tour with a “resto-mod” 1966 Ford Fairlane “Cammer” he had built to his specifications.

Most importantly, throughout his life, Gary was a warm and generous colleague, friend, and neighbor. Scores of his contacts from Tiburon and far beyond have lovely stories of his kindness, thoughtful touches, and unique gestures of friendship. He was a friend, a neighbor, a mentor, an inspiration — someone who impacted his community deeply and whose memory will be held dear in true affection and respect.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Shifting Gears USA, UCSF Brain Tumor Research or Sonoma Equine Rescue Rehab and Adoption (SERRA).